Why Women’s Orgs MUST Become Non-Partisan
November 8, 2009
by Amy Siskind
|The following op-ed by The New Agenda’s Amy Siskind is featured on the home page of The Huffington Post.
After yet another evening of being thrown under the bus, it is high time that women’s organizations drastically change their approach!
Women in the Democratic Party have been taken for granted and have lost their bargaining power as a result. Ladies – this is business, plain and simple, and what it comes down to this: We can no longer work with only one political party – that is “speaking.” Women’s organizations must learn to “negotiate” and establish dialogues with all political parties. Party exclusivity is why women’s organizations are failing in their missions to protect their members and their members’ interests. Women’s organization must become non-partisan immediately.
Last night, our Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi primarily and President Obama secondarily, approved a healthcare bill that does not include funding for abortion. What did they gain for this concession: Nothing. Still 39 blue dog Democrats voted against the bill. There is no better indication of how little bargaining power organizations such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood currently have thanks to their efforts with one party.
The organizations and religious groups that are against abortion have amply made their case with the Democratic leaders. The DNC Chair is anti-choice. Half our country does not know whether President Obama is pro-choice.
Here are some short-term suggestions for women’s advocacy groups:
1. Change of leadership – I agree with parts of what Jane Hamsher wrote last night at HuffPo. Groups set up for this issue failed. Nancy Keenan in particular who endorsed then Senator Obama over Senator Clinton in 2008 when only Clinton had any clear record on reproductive rights – the sole issue on which her organization is focused — should step down immediately. Records show that Keenan has had ample access to the White House and yet has been ineffective at advancing her organization’s cause. She must go.
2. The leaders of the women’s group devoted to choice must immediately head this bill off at the next pass. These organizations should mobilize their members to write to their senators and ask them NOT to pass the bill in its current form.
3. The leaders of women’s groups devoted to choice should immediately set up meetings with Michael Steele, Chair of the RNC, to make their pitch. While opinions in our country are split on abortion, most believe that this a personal decision.
4. The leaders of the all women’s organizations should open lines of communication with political leaders of all political parties. Starting immediately. On all issues concerning women and girls. We need advocates in all parties and this is attainable.
The days of women’s organizations being an appendage of the DNC must end immediately. Women have been taken for granted and speaking to one political party has led to defeat after defeat for causes important to women.
It is high time that women’s organizations blaze a brave new path for their constituents. It is time that we fight for women and girls. And in order to do so, we need to make our case to all political parties. Else, women and women’s issues will continue the easiest give for the Democrats.
I’d even go a step further by encouraging women to become Independent voters.
Yep, I totally agree, women’s orgs should become non partisan. They should remember their loyalty should be towards the issues they are advocating for, not political parties.
That’s a major uphill battle however, because it is so ingrained in people’s heads that the D’s are the party of women’s rights. The R’s don’t help much, they should be out reminding people that it was R’s who put the Equal Rights Amendment on their party platform for decades. It was a couple of R’s who introduced it to congress in the first place. D’s didn’t catch on until 1972 and then they went an allowed it to be merged with abortion rights which created controversy and stalled the whole thing.
R’s gave us the first female congressperson, the first woman nominated for the presidency. But it’s really a challenge to get women to step back and take a look at these two parties because there’s such a strong bias that says R’s are anti woman, D’s are pro women.
“Republican Women Senators Vote in Support of Al Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment
November 1, 2009
…. The amendment has recently passed, in part due to the support of our Republican women senators.”
As the Republican women Senators indicated with their vote, women have more issues in common with other women than with any one political party. I agree with Amy; focusing on women’s issues and opening dialogues and communications on women’s issues across the political spectrum may prove more helpful than any other approach.
Voting for any woman who is pro life merely sets back the woman’s movement. Judging by those woman, Repub and Dem, who took to the floor last night in defense of the Stupak Amendment indicates that they are not in favor of defending women when all is said and done. Trying to compromise with those women who are pro choice, i.e., Sarah Palin as one example, is hurting rather than helping the 30% solution.
Many of these women are as much in thrall of the existing patriarchy that they are willing to reshape feminist issues to meet the demand set forth by religious institutions and political gamesmanship. I am deeply appalled at the way those women who chose to speak on behalf of voting down that amendment were out shouted and interrupted by those who seek to withhold rights from women. Even more so, those women who supported this amendment are a sorrier bunch IMHO.
Women need to regroup but only with the understanding that their rights will not be compromised by pro life groups out to set the agenda on their behalf. There is no middle ground here and after witnessing last night’s discriminatory vote it is becoming clearer that the demarcation between the separation of church and state is becoming further eroded.
The only way that we are going to win and be heard is if the rallying cry contains a unified message that we will no longer tolerate marginalization. One need only look to the state of Oklahoma who has legislated exposing the names of doctors and patients who have sought and performed abortions to appear online. A shocking display of the intrusion into basic privacy and a complete overturning of anything close to human rights. This can happen anywhere in this country and we need to wake up before it becomes the norm.
Instead we are voting for men who belong to a political party that says it’s pro-choice but sells women’s reproductive rights to the lowest bidder? Or says it’s the party that supports women but really doesn’t? Or we stay home and not vote for anyone? That helps us how? I’ll take my chances with voting for women. Period. It’s the one thing we’ve never tried.
I am unable to disagree with the “pro choice” men who have sold us out as well. But are you really prepared for on the likes of Michele Bachmann and Virginia Foxx who openly declare their positions? Is it helpful to have more of this mindset represent women? Religion has played into our public lives more and more over the last 2 decades when it comes decision making on behalf of women. I am not in favor of supporting women who subscribe to this policy anymore than I am in favor of men who proscribe to the same.
Enough men have sold us out over the long run; should we now place our futures in the hands and votes of those candidates based solely on gender? We should be looking at candidates who uphold the equality of women first and foremost regardless of gender or party.
Pat, you have to recognize that all but one of the pro choice house democrats voted yes despite the inclusion of the Stupak amendment. How can you believe that they are truely pro-choice?
on my count the only pro-choice democrat in the house who voted no is Betsy Markey. she also did not like the price take. but she also voted against the Stupak amendment. so the democrat in order to ram their health care bill through are willing to throw their pro choice stand away. what is their pro-choice stand worth?
I personally am pro choice, despite that I find it a poor choice. The aborted embryos are quite small, but have all organs, foot length between 5 and 20 mm. to me this is life although very dependent life. dependent on the decision of the pregnant woman. and that decision is not easy not like pulling a tooth. I would like to see womans organization to focus on a whole array of problems to get to the problem of unwanted pregnancies. bad contraception, over sexalized society. first grader girls want to be sexy. and so on
back to voting. we have to accept reality, that politicians will say anything to get elected. best example Obama who overdid anybody before him in that aspect. if you simply buy their platform, you threw your vote away. so either you have a good voting record and know what your candidate has done. the idea of voting women no matter what is a good one. because it will wake politicians up, that they can not take the womens vote for granted. so even if you vote for a woman who is anti abortion you will be better off in the long run, not because this woman does exactly what you want, but because the opponent who used to get your vote have to show you that they are serious. that you are not voting blindly the “morally superior” party. I am strongly supporting strategical voting.
[...] agree with Amy Siskind: Nancy Keenan must step down. Change of leadership – I agree with parts of what Jane Hamsher [...]
And I have gone even one step further. I am now a Republican. Until I see Democrats acknowledge the sexism and outright misogyny in their party which became obvious in the 2008 election I will not vote Democrat. Where I live we had two Democrats running for Mayor one produced a Sarah Palin smearing ad against his opponent (I am not sure what the point was I guess it was Democrat humor), he is losing and he was expected to win as he is the establishment Democrat. In my opinion Democrats have not acknowledged the sexism in their party and they seem oblivious to the fact that women are 52% of the population in this country and they alienated a large portion of us in the last election.
Both parties are awash in a heaping pile of bullcrap! Neither party has shown any interest, outside of pallid lip service, to women’s issues or equal rights. The Repub platform is loaded with pro life fervor that would interfere with a woman’s right to choose while the Dem platform contained language that would lead one to believe that they were championing women from the get go when it is not so. Neither one deserves respect.
But when a candidate whose base is heavily inscribed with donations from the Fundamentalists whose aim is to reduce even the possibility of access to a lawful medical procedure, one has to take that firmly into account. Lying beneath the surface of many of these pols is their adaptation to the agenda so proscribed in order to get their hands on the funding.
It remains, to me at least, a dangerous proposition to ignore the warning signs that have been raised in this regard.
Abortion is not the only womans issue. It is just the only issue that “feminist” groups seem to care about. Women are only even fertile for half of their average life span. Then not all women engage in sex with men so those women don’t have reproductive issues at all. There are issues that affect all women throughout their whole lives. Unequal pay for equal work, women are three fourths of all people in poverty, Unequal access to health care, No voice in media, Represented by media as either sex object or victim, unequal representation in government, etc, etc, etc. I don’t see any of these issues being addressed by “feminists”. They are nothing but the Democrat party’s ladies auxiliary.
So feminist orgs sold their souls to the Democrats for reproductive rights and the Dems sold women out. Dems will never firm up your Reproductive rights because if they did they would lose the issue that they hold over womens heads to make them heel like good little doggies and vote Democratic. Democrats communicate with women through fear, fear of losing reproductive rights. I don’t think there is any hope for reforming “feminist” orgs. I quit donating to them and donate instead to orgs that actually help women.
Yes both parties are awash in misogynist Bullcrap but the Democrats are also profoundly hypocritical. While the choice between an honest Republican misogynist and a dishonest hypocritical Democrat misogynist isn’t much of a choice, for me it is a clear choice. One is clearly worse than the other.
My revelation about how working with women from all political parties works for all of us came while I was working for candidates and issues at the local level. There are no R’s or D’s after anyone’s name on our local ballot – and behind the candidates or the issues was just a group of women trying to get Jane elected to the school board or a new wing built on the library. I was surprised when I discovered that a lot of them were Republicans seeing how we agreed on electing Jane and building the library wing. And some of them with R’s after their name joined me in campaigning for Hillary all the way to South Dakota. Most women, both Democrats and Republicans, are closer to the center politically than they are to the fringes, but I think the media has done a good job of convincing women like Pat that Republican women are rightwing crazies. It’s a shame because I would love to have Pat on our team. When I was a little girl and would get stuck on an idea that just wasn’t working out, my gran would say, “Sweetie, there are none so blind as those who will not see.”
I disagree with Bes’s assertion that reproductive rights are the problem of young heterosexual women, for that assumes a world without rape. But won’t raped women still be able to terminate, you say? Not if they can’t find a clinic and/or can’t get the money to pay for it. The anti-choice movement has done everything possible to thwart access to abortion for everyone, and many want to remove the rape exception as well.
It’s a slope that’s slippery and getting slipperier……
Interesting point Shannon but do you want to base the fight for womens rights on rape which again only happens to some women or would you like to base it on issues that happen to all women? I would like to base my fight for womens rights on issues that affect all women their entire life. So I am interested in the lack of female voice in Media, The portrayal of women as sex objects or victims by media, The inability of media to call a brutal gang rape a sex based hate crime and instead try to reframe it as a youth problem. Unequal wages for the same work as men, lack of representation in government. I would also like to know since it is considered that women should pay more for health care since their reproductive care could cost more then men should men not be charged more in taxes to support prisons and court systems since their testosterone influenced behavior causes them to behave in a manner that clogs the courts and prisons. I’m just wondering. And if women are not represented in significant numbers in government are we then being taxed without representation? I say we are. I am not interested in the “feminist” definition of womens rights.
Bes, great comments…
I’m more Machiavellian. I do want choice there, and I can see a world where I might need it even though I don’t have sex with men.
But voting women-only without regard for choice is the path that5 will get us there. If you just can’t see that, or just can’t manage it, or if your contempt adn hatred for some Republican woman candidate matters more to you … then fine.
Voting women-only regardless of their personal stance on choice will get us choice. Why? Because so many women are pro-choice, and even the ones whoa ren’t are generally not so in-your-face about it as to um, oh I don’t know, withhold it from government funded healthcare.
If you can’t see how this works, then fine. Go on your anti-chick grudges, and sit right where you are, without hoice and with a Democratic party that trats women like the nurses in Richard Speck’s basement. They played it safe, too. Look where it got them.
If you CAN understand how arriving at your goal might take a path that swerves a bit or doesn’t seem to head directly toward choice for all, then stay the course. Vote women, all women.
(PLease don’t make the arugment about six million Margaret Thatchers being elected. Yeah, and I might flip a coin and have it land on edge ten thousand times.)
I never understood how the so called womans groups would endorse the most sexist man who ever ran for President as well as the Party who helped him cheat the more qualified woman.
I am offended that both Parties think the only issue I care about is abortion. I used to consider myself pro choice until Pro choice began to mean whenever the mother felt like it. As a poor woman I am sick of people on both sides using poor women in this issue. The Government stopped paying for our abortions back when the Dems had control of the House and Senate and Ronald Reagan was President and frankly I don’t know anyone who couldn’t get an abortion if she wanted one.
I still consider myself pro choice for the first 12 weeks of Pregnacy. Will I ever vote on this issue NO I much prefer to know what the politicians pay their female staff in comparison to their male staff because that frankly tells me more then anything else about the character of the person running for office.
so many great comments and strategical voters. Bes, i like a lot of your comments. just a minor disagreement. true not all injustices to women affect us equally. although young women are the main target of rapes, none of us at any age is safe. there is no age limit to rape. although I have no need for reproductive services or same sex marriage i will always support these issues. #1 we need to band together and see our common causes. #2 we need broad alliances. we go to gay marches and gays go to reproductive, anti domestic violence/rape marches. that would be my goal. re marches. anybody saw the movie “iron jawed angels”? it shows the big march along pennsylvania avenue from 1910 for the womens vote. the media currently pay attention to our issues Rihanna interview ABC. Schriver report MSNBC. gays had their equality march a few weeks ago with 150000 and it brought them the hate legislation bill, a far cry from their demands. but still a very useful action. could we organize that in response to increasing violence, lack of respect, sexualized objectifying pictures of women, disregard in healthcare services. i’d like to see a sign demanding men pay more taxes for prisons.
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